Background: High quality studies have been challenging to undertake in patients with metastatic epidural spinal cord compression. Nonetheless, in the article“Survival and Clinical Outcomes in Surgically Treated Patients With Meta-static Epidural Spinal Cord Compression: Results of the Prospective Multicenter AOSpine Study”recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, our team provided convincing evidence that spinal surgery improves overall quality of life in patients with this potentially devastating complication of cancer. Considering that metastatic spinal lesions treated with surgery have the highest mean cost among all oncological musculo-skeletal issues, it is essential to pro-vide high quality data to optimize the therapeutic approaches and cost-effective use of health care resources. Main body: Although the AOSpine Study provided high quality prospective data, it was primarily limited by the lack of non-operative controls and the relatively small sample size. Given the dearth of medical equipoise and the funda-mental difference between patients deemed to be adequate surgical candidates and those who are not amenable to operative intervention, conducting a randomized controlled trial in this patient population was not felt to be ethi-cally or medically feasible. Consequently, the optimal option to overcome limitations of both the lack of controls and the relatively small sample size is through collection of large prospective datasets through rigorously developed and maintained registries. Conclusions: With the alarming increase in the incidence of cancer in China and China’s parallel growing cancer con-trol efforts, China would offer a fantastic platform to set up a national metastatic spinal lesion registry. Such registry would not only enhance metastatic epidural spinal cord compression translational research but also optimize patient care.

Collection of information on spinal column injury is very important for the diagnosis and treatment of individuals with spinal cord lesions. The purpose of the Spinal Column Injury Basic Data Set for spinal cord injury individuals is to standardize the collection and reporting of a minimal amount of information on the spinal column injury in daily practice. By studying and using the International Spinal Cord Injury Spinal Column Injury Basic Data Set, it is helpful to standardize and unify the collection of information on spinal column injury of patients with spinal cord injury in our country and afford evidence to the relevant treatments. The process used to develop the International Spinal Cord Injury Spinal Column Injury Basic Data Set, a description of the data elements and examples of cases illustrating how the data is coded is described in this paper.

PURPOSE: The median time from the event leading to the spinal cord injury (SCI) to the time of decompressive surgery is estimated to be 6.9 days in Iran, which is much longer than the proposed ideal time (less than 24 h) in published guidelines. The current qualitative study aimed to determine the reasons for the observed decompression surgery delay in Iran from the perspective of neurosurgeons. METHODS: This qualitative study is designed to perform content analysis on the gathered data from face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 12 Iranian neurosurgeons. RESULTS: The findings of the current study suggest that patient-related factors constitute more than half of the codes extracted from the interviews. Overall, the type of injury, presence of polytrauma, and surgeons' wrong attitude are the main factors causing delayed spinal cord decompression in Iranian patients from the perspective of neurosurgeons. Other notable factors include delay in transferring patients to the trauma center, delay in availability of necessary equipment, and scarce medical personnel. CONCLUSION In the perspective of neurosurgeons, the type of injury, presence of polytrauma, and surgeons' wrong attitude are the leading reasons for delayed decompressive surgery of individuals with SCI in Iran.
Decompression ; Humans ; Iran ; Neurosurgeons ; Spinal Cord Injuries/surgery*

The National Spinal Cord Injury Registry of Iran (NSCIR-IR) is a not-for-profit, hospital-based, and prospective observational registry that appraises the quality of care, long-term outcomes and the personal and psychological burden of traumatic spinal cord injury in Iran. Benchmarking validity in every registry includes rigorous attention to data quality. Data quality assurance is essential for any registry to make sure that correct patients are being enrolled and that the data being collected are valid. We reviewed strengths and weaknesses of the NSCIR-IR while considering the methodological guidelines and recommendations for efficient and rational governance of patient registries. In summary, the steering committee, funded and maintained by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran, the international collaborations, continued staff training, suitable data quality, and the ethical approval are considered to be the strengths of the registry, while limited human and financial resources, poor interoperability with other health systems, and time-consuming processes are among its main weaknesses.